Friday, May 26, 2017

No one wants a fire, but let’s face it — fires happen. In the world of manufacturing, a ‘fire’ can refer to everything from sharp edges to rust, oil, and poor surface finishes. These are the roadblocks we face in the mass parts manufacturing industry.

In a perfect world, every part would come out of a press or CNC machine (or even out of storage, for that matter) in pristine condition, without a blemish to be found. Fortunately for us, we don’t live in this perfect world. If we did, there would be no need for Latem Industries!

Fighting Fires for Ontario’s Manufacturers

Ontario’s top manufacturers and assembly plants set a benchmark that determines whether a manufactured part is ready to be handled and assembled into the finished product. A team of engineers establishes a specification for the part, which is often included in the part drawing, and passes it down to the many tiers in the manufacturing process. A manufactured part is only acceptable when it meets the engineers’ standards.

Of course, some of it is pure common sense. If a part looks unacceptable, it probably is!

When ‘blemishes’ like sharp edges occur, manufacturers outsource the part to one of only a handful of capable finishing companies. Latem Industries just happens to be one of them.

Latem Industries has a proud reputation in the world of metal finishing, shot peening, shot blasting, and deburring services. Our name is synonymous with honesty and reliability. And because a large volume of the parts we see daily come from our local automotive industry, we are known for turning parts around very quickly.

Canada’s Mass Finishing Expert

No one expects a ‘fire’ to break out. It can be a devastating and extremely costly setback if a customer’s production parts aren’t ready for assembly. Ontario’s manufacturers rely on Latem Industries to put out the fire.

As our lead hand would say, “we’ve done this before.” We’ve proven over and over that our metal finishing processes work. Our metal deburring, shot peening, and shot blasting techniques can smother fires in no time.

Stand outside our driveway on any given day and you’ll be amazed at the volume of truck traffic. It looks like something you’d find on a section of Highway 401! The fact that we have 18 loading bays and 80,000 ft2 of processing space says a little something about how much business we see. More importantly, it speaks of the trust our customers have in us.

When a die starts behaving badly and leaves sharp edges or burrs on a part, manufacturers email us for help. We run the parts through our vibratory department as quickly as possible. When the manufacturing process leaves too many oil deposits on a part, we get phone calls asking for the best wash solution. When a coating won’t adhere well to a substrate, our customers call and ask, “Now what?” And when Ontario’s fifth season hits (rust season, our favourite!) our email inboxes and phones light up like the 4th of July.

We don’t wear special uniforms or hard hats, and we don’t carry an axe. We certainly aren’t heroes (though the word has been thrown around by a customer or two). But there’s no other mass metal finishing company in the country that can fight fires as well as Latem Industries.